* TOM HOVELL SHANKS RSW RGI PAI (SCOTTISH 1921 - 2020),
LOCH AILORT
watercolour on paper, signed
20cm x 64cm
Mounted, framed and under glass.
Note: Tom was born in Glasgow and spent his early years in Dennistoun. After his father’s death, when Tom was just ten years old, he and his older brother were raised by their mother and her two sisters. Shelving his dream of going to art school, he left school in his early teens and got a job as an office boy at Templeton’s carpet factory, but art remained his passion. As young as seven, on family holidays to Skye he would set off with his drawing book and sketch the mountains. He later spoke of this as a formative experience which defined what would be his key subject for the rest of his artistic life. At Templeton’s he began to exhibit his drawings and paintings in the art club and worked his way up to a job in the design department at the time when the company was creating the carpets for Cunard’s new liner, the Queen Mary. Returning to Glasgow after the war, he started attending night classes at Glasgow School of Art where his exceptional work was spotted by the director, Harry Barnes, who encouraged him into full-time study. He graduated in 1950, winning a prestigious travelling scholarship which took him to France, Italy and Belgium, painting as he went. Tom’s wife-to-be, June, was a fellow student at Glasgow School of Art. They married in 1953 and were together for 65 years until her death in 2018. Tom and June moved to Rosehill in Kilbarchan in 1956, sharing the big house with artist friends Bill Birnie and his wife Cynthia (Wall). Tom and June’s daughters, Judy and Wendy, grew up alongside the three Birnie children, forming lifelong friendships. Tom also began to exhibit his own paintings with Glasgow gallery Cyril Gerber Fine Art, a relationship which continued until Cyril’s death (2012) and after the gallery passed to his daughter Jill. Tom was elected to membership of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) in 1957. The family often spent the six-week summer holiday in the Highlands, where Tom would head off daily to paint and draw. Working en plein air was an important aspect of his practice, whether painting the mountains or sketching seascapes on the deck of a ferry bound for the islands. He took early retirement from teaching to concentrate on painting. Always productive, Tom was now able to exhibit regularly with a range of galleries and a following quickly grew for his work. Never one for self-promotion, he preferred to leave June to work the room at private views and could often be found in quiet conversation with art students or gallery assistants, learning about their work. He was made RGI in 1983 and PAI in 1996. At no point did advancing age curb Tom’s productivity as an artist. If anyone ever asked why he was still wielding a paintbrush in his nineties, they would be quietly told: “I’m an artist, that’s what I do.” A master of watercolour, he particularly enjoyed capturing the moods and weather of the Highlands, the shifting patterns of cloud and light over panoramas of mountains. In old age, he decided to experiment with oil paint and produced a handful of exquisite works, adapting the techniques he used so masterfully in watercolour to this new medium. His last solo show was at Jill Gerber Fine Art in 2018, and he continued to supply paintings for group shows, and painted well into his 99th year. He celebrated his 99th birthday in April during the pandemic lockdown with his three great-grandchildren singing to him through his window. The pandemic meant attendance at his funeral was limited, but friends and neighbours lined the streets of Kilmacolm as his cortege passed, to honour a man who is remembered as a caring, modest gentleman and an exceptional artist. Notable collections include HRH Prince Philip, The Hunterian (Glasgow) and The House of Lords (London).